Sessions makes Franken and Paul come together

Republicans and Democrats in Congress are introducing medical marijuana legislation Thursday protecting states from federal interference in the wake of a request to roll back protections from Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Members of the House of Representatives and Senate are backing a comprehensive marijuana package in an effort to protect state medical legalization laws from a potential federal crackdown. The bill gives the Department of Veteran Affairs the freedom to recommend medical marijuana to patients and removes cannabidiol (CBD), used to treat chronic pain and severe epilepsy, from the Controlled Substances Act.

Republican Sens. Mike Lee, Rand Paul and Lisa Murkowski join Democratic Sens. Al Franken, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand as initial sponsors of the legislation, which they will announce in a press conference Thursday. A version of the legislation in the House is also attracting bipartisan support.

Here are some of the provisions of that bill:

Amends the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to provide that control and enforcement provisions of such Act relating to marijuana shall not apply to any person acting in compliance with state law relating to the production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, laboratory testing, or delivery of medical marijuana.

Transfers marijuana from schedule I to schedule II of the CSA.

Excludes “cannabidiol” from the definition of “marijuana” and defines it separately as the substance cannabidiol, as derived from marijuana or the synthetic formulation, that contains not greater than 0.3% delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol on a dry weight basis. Deems marijuana that is grown or processed for purposes of making cannabidiol, in accordance with state law, to meet such concentration limitation unless the Attorney General determines that the state law is not reasonably calculated to comply with such definition.

Prohibits a federal banking regulator from: (1) terminating or limiting the deposit insurance of a depository institution solely because it provides or has provided financial services to a marijuana-related legitimate business; or (2) prohibiting, penalizing, or otherwise discouraging a depository institution from providing financial services to a marijuana-related legitimate business. […]

16 comments to Sessions makes Franken and Paul come together

Marijuana as Schedule II substance may not be an improvement, in balance.

Currently, in states where it’s been allowed, medical marijuana is available simply with a medical card approved by a doctor’s recommendation, without 60-day prescription renewal or strict quantity controls. Schedule II turns marijuana into a tightly controlled prescription drug, potentially. Probably, I’d say.

That also brings up the probability of regulatory capture- Big Pharma having the monopoly over supplying the substance through pharmacies, along with control over the varietals and cannabinoid ingredients. This may undercut legalization in states that have already legalized pot for commercial sale. It may even prohibit home cultivation of household quantities for personal use.

EDIT- I just re-read the story, and realized that it modifies the Controlled Substance Act so that it, at least at first glance, it no longer applies the stringent Federal prescription controls to pot that regulate other Schedule II substances like the opioids, methamphetamine, and cocaine, allowing the States to set their own regulatory provisions instead.

Still, I’m suspicious. That provision may be stripped away in the amendment process before the final vote. So, keep an eye on this bill…

There is not enough harm in cannabis to warrant its inclusion in the CSA at all. I hope THAT is considered in any revisions.

To protect the states rights and the patients, to protect the use of the cannabis plant as a health agent that is capable of restoring balance in the human body. To restore the rights of a human being to treat himself as he sees fit – with a plant that has never killed a soul from overdose. That is a pharmaceutical company inherent right endowed to them by our almighty corporate benefactors in the government.

… And for those of us who may soon have no other options but to grow their own medicine to treat themselves in an affordable manner since basic health care may soon be out of reach to the common man in society.

I have advanced prostate cancer that has spread to the bone (before I was even diagnosed). The doctor has told me when or if the cancer spreads to my lymph nodes its all over.

I would spit in the eye of the devil to use this plant as it gives me hope. The hope I need to live and go on with my life using cannabis to end my pain and stop my discomfort and still allow me to participate in the activity of life while the docs try to kill me with the latest chemo toxic concoctions.

Make this plant available to the public broadly, as
has been the case for the entire recorded history of man on this planet.

This plant belongs on no ones schedule except mine and yours to use as we see fit. Damn these rotten greedy bastards! Its time for them to get educated about a plant that has benefits with a safety profile that far exceeds the safety profiles of any pharmaceutical drugs on the market.

Science backs Franken and Paul. Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Medical Center studied marijuana rates of use in marijuana friendly states. The conclusions contradict several predictions made by prohibitionists about the consequences of legalization:

15-JUN-2017 – Little change was found in past-month marijuana use among adolescents or young adults between the ages 18 and 25. […]

Adults 26 years of age and older living in states with less regulated medical marijuana programs increased past-month marijuana use from 4 percent to 6.59 percent after the laws were enacted. No significant change was found in the prevalence of cannabis use disorder among adolescents or adults after states enacted medical marijuana laws, regardless whether programs were highly regulated or “loose.”[…]

Not only has adolescent use shown no increase as prophesied, the 2.59 percent increase for those 26 and older would include new consumers of cannabis, which knocks down a theory promoted by anti-marijuana groups that someone who refrains from use up to age 21 is unlikely to ever consume marijuana. For some people it needs to be legal before they will use it.

But but but….
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Keif Harrumphreys, who purports to do science, says marijuana consumption is soaring! He even links to scientific evidence (oops, I mean his own damn speculation).
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What a useless lump of turd that guy is! Commenters took him to task heavily on both articles (and I recognized a few couch-mates there), but we all know he doesn’t bother reading material he can’t understand. WaPo is the InfoWars of the left and Keif-turd is their Alex Jones.

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My favorite part is how far they expanded the list of places where someone might have voluntarily sought “treatment” for the fiction of merrywanna addiction. The school nurse? Seriously?

/snip/
The orange part of each bar captures data from an annual national population survey that asks marijuana-using individuals about treatment they have received in the past year. It covers a much broader range of settings than the survey of substance-use treatment programs, including help-seeking with physicians, psychologists, school nurses, urgent care clinic staff and self-help groups. Most marijuana-treatment-seeking in these settings is voluntary, and court-mandated public sector addiction treatment has been excluded from the data reflected in the orange part of the bars.

The Humpty Dumpty school of sophistry is alive and well and still very popular among the sycophants of prohibition. Since when is the school nurse a drug rehab organization?

On the other hand, does this mean that they’re abandoning the argument that cannabis has to be illegal because otherwise those suffering the fiction of merrywanna addiction won’t seek help? Now it has to be illegal because otherwise people will seek “help” for their “addiction”?

/snip/
No one knows where I come from,
“Who are you and what do you want?”
You’ve thrown away all that we had,
It’s down the drain, it’s all gone mad.
The word is out, I’ve seen the sign,
So you go your way, I go mine.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It’s back to front and I’m all uptight.

East is West, left is right,
Up is down, and black is white,
Inside-out, wrong is right,
It’s back to front and I’m all uptight (alright).
It’s back to front and I’m all uptight (alright, alright, alright, alright).

OT Quantum entanglement seems to break some of the bedrock rules of standard physics: that nothing can travel faster than light, that objects are only influenced by their immediate surroundings. And scientists still can’t explain how the particles are linked.

Suit over life-ending drugs for terminally ill gets hearing
Some see the measure as providing choice to the dying in a health care system that helps people live longer but is limited in preventing slow, painful deaths. Critics say they fear the option will lead to hasty decisions, misdiagnosis and waning support for palliative care.

The DEA’s shining star of success in South America is being tarnished. The truce between FARC Rebels and the Colombian government is being violated as the rebels and their leaders continue to be eliminated through extrajudicial killings.

Meanwhile, corruption and chaos are taking center stage in Washington D.C. instead of more pressing concerns, such as demanding that Colombian officials honor the armistice. It seems unlikely the current administration will do so, however. The violence fits too neatly among the many Trump/Sessions political distractions that include intensifying the drug war.